Expect Melbourne City to take all three points

City once again impressed on the road by keeping league leaders Brisbane to a draw last weekend, while Perth also managed to pick up a point at home to 4th place Sydney in the extreme Perth heat, meaning that they can get out the bottom-two if they avoid defeat here.

City have only won two of their seven games so far this season with those wins coming against bottom of the league Adelaide and 8th placed Central Coast. Indeed, they’ve lost their last two at home, including a 3-0 thrashing from Western Sydney. Following their salary cap violation last season, that resulted a number of their stars leaving the club, Perth look destined to finish towards the bottom of the table this season and City’s home record against sides that finished between 7th and 10th last season was W4-D2-L0. Both those draws came early on last term and three of their four wins were without conceding.

Perth have lost all three of their away games this season, though all these defeats were by only one goal, despite the fact that they’ve played current first and third Brisbane and Sydney on the road. The other defeat, however, was at Central Coast, whom City were comfortable 3-1 winners against in their only home victory defeat this season.

Despite their poor start to the season, Perth have only trailed at half-time once but they’ve lost the second half on three occasions. They have a few injury concerns ahead of this game, with the loss of key forward Guyon Fernandes a particular blow, though City have their own fitness issues as they’ll be without skipper and defensive linchpin Kisnorbo.

We expect City to take all three points here, but since they’ve drawn the first half in eight of their last 12 home games, including three of their last four at home, backing City to take until the second half to exert their dominance looks the best play here.